Abstract
BackgroundThe carambola fruit fly, Bactrocera carambolae Drew & Hancock is a high profile key pest that is widely distributed in the southwestern ASEAN region. In addition, it has trans-continentally invaded Suriname, where it has been expanding east and southward since 1975. This fruit fly belongs to Bactrocera dorsalis species complex. The development and application of a genetic sexing strain (Salaya1) of B. dorsalis sensu stricto (s.s.) (Hendel) for the sterile insect technique (SIT) has improved the fruit fly control. However, matings between B. dorsalis s.s. and B. carambolae are incompatible, which hinder the application of the Salaya1 strain to control the carambola fruit fly. To solve this problem, we introduced genetic sexing components from the Salaya1 strain into the B. carambolae genome by interspecific hybridization.ResultsMorphological characteristics, mating competitiveness, male pheromone profiles, and genetic relationships revealed consistencies that helped to distinguish Salaya1 and B. carambolae strains. A Y-autosome translocation linking the dominant wild-type allele of white pupae gene and a free autosome carrying a recessive white pupae homologue from the Salaya1 strain were introgressed into the gene pool of B. carambolae. A panel of Y-pseudo-linked microsatellite loci of the Salaya1 strain served as markers for the introgression experiments. This resulted in a newly derived genetic sexing strain called Salaya5, with morphological characteristics corresponding to B. carambolae. The rectal gland pheromone profile of Salaya5 males also contained a distinctive component of B. carambolae. Microsatellite DNA analyses confirmed the close genetic relationships between the Salaya5 strain and wild B. carambolae populations. Further experiments showed that the sterile males of Salaya5 can compete with wild males for mating with wild females in field cage conditions.ConclusionsIntrogression of sex sorting components from the Salaya1 strain to a closely related B. carambolae strain generated a new genetic sexing strain, Salaya5. Morphology-based taxonomic characteristics, distinctive pheromone components, microsatellite DNA markers, genetic relationships, and mating competitiveness provided parental baseline data and validation tools for the new strain. The Salaya5 strain shows a close similarity with those features in the wild B. carambolae strain. In addition, mating competitiveness tests suggested that Salaya5 has a potential to be used in B. carambolae SIT programs based on male-only releases.
Highlights
The carambola fruit fly, Bactrocera carambolae Drew & Hancock is a high profile key pest that is widely distributed in the southwestern ASEAN region
Mating tests suggested that Salaya5 has a potential to be used in B. carambolae sterile insect technique (SIT) programs based on male-only releases
The wing costal band observation (Figures 1A14, 1A16, 1A18, 1A20, 1A22, and 1A24) reveals that it is confluent with R2+3 and remains narrow and of uniform width to the apex of the wing for B. dorsalis
Summary
The carambola fruit fly, Bactrocera carambolae Drew & Hancock is a high profile key pest that is widely distributed in the southwestern ASEAN region It has trans-continentally invaded Suriname, where it has been expanding east and southward since 1975. Hancock is widely distributed and roughly indigenous to western side of the Indo-Australian Archipelago (demarcated based on fauna bio-geographical survey by Wallace’s and Huxley’s lines) which includes Peninsular Thailand, Malaysia, and Western Indonesia [2,3,4] It infests at least 26 species of host worldwide; most of these fruits are commercial (e.g., star fruit, mango, rose apple, jackfruit, breadfruit, orange) [3,5]. B. carambolae is one species in the process of being eradicated from the region north of Brazil [8]
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